The so-called cramdown bankruptcy measure faces its big Senate test as early as this week.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) intends to bring up housing legislation. But Democratic congressional leaders haven’t decided whether to include the controversial bankruptcy language in the underlying bill or offer it as an amendment on the floor, where it would then face a 60-vote filibuster hurdle.

Negotiations in search of a compromise that could win 60 votes, led by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), were slated to continue through the weekend. But so far, weeks of negotiation have failed to yield results. Nonetheless, some participants remain optimistic.

Lobbyists for the mortgage finance industry, who oppose the bankruptcy language, predict that the measure will fail on the floor.